MOUNTIES USE SECRET CAMERAS AT PEARSON

System Looks For Criminals But Raises Privacy Worry

The Mounties are using a controversial computer face-recognition system to
identify
drug dealers and other criminals at Pearson International Airport.

The system is similar to one at Ontario casinos, which lets the
Ontario Provincial Police feed a suspect's image into a criminal
database, looking for mug shot matches.

Ontario's privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the
face-scanning at Ontario casinos after concerns sparked by a Hamilton
Spectator story, which revealed police were secretly using their own
high-tech system to find cheats.

Even a security adviser for the company that makes the system the RCMP
is using admits the practice raises serious privacy concerns.

The RCMP's system uses face scans when a suspicious person is spotted
and then detained to check identity and criminal record.

There is no general video scanning of travellers at any time,
according to RCMP spokesperson Michele Paradis. It is the first time a
face-scanning system has been used at a North American commercial airport.

The system is made by Imagis Technologies Inc., a Vancouver firm whose
chairman of the board is Oliver (Buck) Revell, former deputy director
of the FBI and an anti-terrorism expert.

Reid Morden, who was director of the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service in the late 1980s and now advises Imagis, said face scans are
an effective tool against drugs, terrorism and organized crime.

"I bet every time you went through Heathrow Airport, you didn't know
that if you walk up a certain ramp, somebody is taking a good look at
you," said Morden, chairman of the corporate intelligence unit for
KPMG consultants.

"But if you were faced, as the British are, with the kind of random
violence of the IRA, is that a justified invasion of your privacy? I
think it probably is."

But he said rules would be needed soon for what he called the "Wild
West that's out there" in new surveillance technology, and he
acknowledged the risk of privacy invasion is increased.

Still, Morden added, "There's been a lot of criticism about our
extremely porous border, which has certainly raised the political
temperature in the U.S."

"I don't think we've had that same level of criticism from the people
who are counterparts of the Canadian agencies, the American
immigration service, the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. "

Morden said Canada has a reputation as a gateway for illegal
immigration, and he said borders must tighten even while budgets are
cut.

Biometric techniques like face-scanning are cheaper because they need
less manpower, but privacy advocates say they are invasive.

Biometrics refers to the electronic identification of a person by
measuring distinctive biological characteristics, such as faces,
fingers or hands.

Face recognition is popular because so many photos of individuals
already exist.

The casino system the OPP is using has drawn fire from Ann Cavoukian,
Ontario's privacy commissioner.

"It's an instance of covert surveillance . . . covert in that the
public doesn't know it's taking place. That's what makes this so
egregious. The innocent public, the tourist, the retirees who go there
have no idea this activity is taking place and that's an enormous
threat to privacy."

But Duncan Brown, of the Ontario Alcohol and Gaming Commission, has
defended use of the casino system as "an investigative tool that is
targeted at the bad guys."

The technology used at the casinos lets the OPP compare images from
live video surveillance inside the casinos to a digital database of
criminal mug shots.

The systems can search thousands of faces on file to produce matches,
according to what police have asked for.

The system is not foolproof, but the technology is rapidly improving,
says Iain Drummond, chief executive of Imagis.

"We use a mathematical process that picks up about 250 areas of the
face, looking for difference in gradation, things like curvature of
the eye socket," says Drummond.

A criminal might be able to change appearances, things like moustache,
hair colour, even some features with plastic surgery. But bone
structure does not change, making it possible to nab suspects who
otherwise would pass.

"They must sound to the public like they're engaged in some sort of
James Bond activity," says Gary Jonosko, a Lakehead University
professor specializing in surveillance.

"But this is a fairly common practice around the world. It's new to
Canada, perhaps, but not exactly new."

Face-recognition emerged in the past decade, at first because England
needed to identify leaders of soccer hooliganism in the early 1990s.

For the past two years, the English community of Newham has scanned
faces in a pilot project with over 300 cameras. They are hooked up to
a control room which scans passersby for matches with criminals.

Many businesses already use face scans to confirm customer identity,
and scans are emerging as a security check for automated bank machines.

Face-scanning is also used internally by law enforcement agencies
across North America, including the RCMP.

About 30 regular RCMP detachments, including in Newmarket, western
Canada and the Maritimes, use face scans.

When a suspect is fingerprinted, photographed and processed, the
system enters the data digitally into each detachment's database. This
means officers in a cruiser can later take a digital picture of an
offender and compare it with the local database.